LOG CABIN SQUARES! TEXTILE UPCYCLING!

Sharpen your scissors - it is time to do some textile upcycling and sew some log cabin squares! Log cabin squares are a great thing to create if you have some fabric scraps or worn-out clothes and/or odd socks. It is not difficult to make log cabin squares, altough it may look complicated if you have never done it before.

Start by finding out which fabrics and/or clothes you are going to use. I found an old dress that was too small with the zipper broken, an old Sponge Bob shirt that both my kids used when they were small, a pair of old jeans that I've already cut pieces from, an old white shirt and an odd sock that I didn't want to throw away because I liked the stars on it and thought that suddenly one day I would have a use for it... and suddenly that day had come! Today was the day to give the odd sock a new life!

It always feels a bit scary to put the scissors into a piece of clothes. But nothing lasts forever and un-used clothes deverves a second life. I've had this dress lying around for a really long time, well over a decade. I remember I bought it when my youngest son was a newborn. That is 18 years ago so it is absolutely time to re-create something new out of this dress! I am going to save the bottom of the dress and sew it into a skirt.

Start by cutting out a background, a piece of fabric that is about as large as you you want your finished work. Then cut out a square to put in the middle, the sides of the square should be perfectly even. My rose is 8 by 8 centimeters (about 3,2 inches.)

Cut out a piece of fabric that is exactly the same lengt as your square and as high as you want. All your other pieces need to be the same height as that piece. Sew the piece in place with a presser foot wide seam.

Turn the piece to the right side and iron the piece flat.

Now it's time to cut out a new piece of fabric that is as high as the previous piece of fabric and as long as both of the other two pieces. Sew the piece of fabric in place with a presser-foot wide seam.

Styrk ut den biten också och fortsätt klippa och sy bitar till du har gått hela varvet runt.

Continue cutting and sewing until you have gone the entire way around. Make sure you iron every piece carefully.

Continue sewing until your log cabin is as big as you want it.

It's so much fun to sew log cabin squares and you can use them for so many things. You can make a bag out of them for example, like I've done. It is super pretty to sew a bedspread/quilt with log cabin squares, it is a real pleasure but it takes some time.

You can also frame your small embroideries with log cabins, it looks colourful and goes especially well on pillows.

You can also do some embroidery on your log cabin. It's is a great pleasure to create tiny pieces like this and do small embroidery on it. Real joy!

I thought of Marie Antoinette when I made this log cabin, about the well-known expression that she is know for. Yes, I know that the Eiffel Tower didn't exist when Marie Antoinette lived and actually I don't know if she said that expression either, but with a little bit of imagination we can make this into a Marie Antoinette pillow. According to the legend Marie Antoinette said in relation to the starving workers who didn't have money for bread "Well, don't they have any bread? Let them eat cake!". Now we can draw a parralell to the fact that the French Revolution had it's roots in the textile industry and when we look at the current situation in todays textile industry we can absolutely find some similarity - but I will do that another time, in another blog. Until then - enjoy the Textile Revolution! And remember to sew some log cabin squares!